Liadova Cliff Monastery
A cliff monastery above the Dnister; according to legend, founded in 1013.
The monastery, known as the “Podillian Athos”, stands on a rock terrace of a 90-metre hill on the left bank of the Dnister near the village of Liadova. Legend: in 1013 it was founded by Antonii of the Caves on his way from Athos to Kyiv — the cell he carved in the rock still bears his name. The chronicle first mentions the monastery under the year 1159; at the end of the 17th century two churches connected by a passage were cut into the rock — of the Beheading of St John the Baptist and of St Paraskeva Piatnytsia. In the 18th century the monastery accepted the Union, and at the beginning of the 19th century it was returned to the Orthodox. In the second half of the 1920s the Soviet authorities confiscated its property, and in 1938, according to Ukrinform, the monastery was blown up — the border with Romania then ran along the Dnister. In 1998 the monastery (now UOC MP) was restored by monks of the Pochaiv Lavra; in 2009 it received the status of an archaeological monument of national significance. Visitors see the cave churches, the ossuary crypts and Antonii's Spring.
A working monastery: dress and conduct by monastic custom.